The administration of EFKA proceeded with the placement of the first five new General Directors, after their approval by the body’s board of directors.

These are the first five positions of General Managers, pursuant to the law 4892/2022 for the modernization of the EFKA, which provides for the possibility of hiring executives from both the public and private sectors, with increased formal and substantive qualifications, with a three-year term and possibility to renew once.

In the immediate future, the completion of the process for filling the remaining 19 positions of General Managers is expected.

As mentioned by EFKA in its announcement, the new General Directors of the Central Service of EFKA are the following:

I. General Directorate of Pensions: Eleni Niarhakou

II. General Directorate of Public Sector Pensions: Ismini Kotsovolou

III. General Directorate of Supplementary Insurance and Lump-sum Benefits: Athanassios Athanasiou

IV. General Directorate of Contributions: Dimitroula Eleftheriadis

V. General Directorate of International Cooperation: Vasiliki Zerva

Especially, for these five positions and, due to the special nature of the subject, only EFKA employees, as well as employees of the rest of the public sector, could be hired.

In the General Directorate of Pensions and the General Directorate of Supplementary Insurance and Lump-sum Benefits, the General Directors remained the same (Mr. Niarhakou and Mr. Athanasiou, respectively).

Mrs. Kotsovolou and Mrs. Eleftheriadis assume the position of General Director for the first time, while Mrs. Vasiliki Zerva moves from the General Directorate of Administrative Support, Technical Services and Housing, to the General Directorate of International Cooperation.

The number of candidates who expressed their interest in the above positions was as follows:

  • 30 people for the General Directorate of Pensions.
  • 36 people for the General Directorate of Public Sector Pensions.
  • 34 people for the General Directorate of Auxiliary Insurance and Lump-sum Benefits.
  • 27 people for the General Directorate of Contributions.
  • 22 people for the General Directorate of International Cooperation.

Selection criteria and evaluation process

According to the announcement, the evaluation of the candidates was based on the following criteria:

a) Existence of formal qualifications (holding a bachelor’s or master’s degree from a national university or equivalent abroad) in a subject related to the requirements of the position to be filled.

b) Existence of professional experience of at least five years in positions of responsibility in services or organizations or enterprises of the public or private sector of the country or abroad.

c) Demonstrated good knowledge of English and/or a foreign language of an EU member state, in accordance with the provisions of the ASEP language proficiency annex. Especially, for the General Directorate of International Cooperation, an excellent knowledge of the English language is required.

The selection of candidates was based on the objective assessment of the suitability of each candidate, following the following evaluation process:

  • Three-member committee proposal.
  • Exclusion of persons for whom there are obstacles to appointment, by decision of the Three-member Committee.
  • Grading of any additional qualifications, after review by the Three-Member Committee.
  • Compilation of a ranking table of candidates for each advertised position in descending order of score by the Three-Member Committee.
  • Conducting the structured interview of the candidates for each advertised position by the Three-Member Committee.

Based on the criterion of the structured interview, the final score was extracted and the final ranking table was drawn up for each advertised position, which constitutes the list of eligible candidates.